I see your point. What I mean is that when I exercise, my carb range increases and I feel like I have to eat more to reach the new goal? If I am on a rest day, the carb ranges you stated are where I am at. I haven't changed any of my ranges but I will take your suggestion and see about resetting them

Oh, and about those mid-day sleepies: Does your workplace let smokers take smoking breaks? If so, tell your manager you want the same amount of time for "non-smoking" breaks, and use them for a quick walk around the building. Workplaces never think to offer that option, but they almost always grant it happily if you ask. That little 3-minute walk will do more to clear the cobwebs than any snack would. (If your manager for some weird reason says no, then wait a week and tell him/her you've started smoking and need a break for that.)

is there any chance you accidentally may have manually changed your ranges? because with carb numbers ranging from 100-250 grams a day and your calories in the 1200-1550 range that's about right where they should be [actually the 250 seems like it should be a bit over, not anywhere near under]. so 100-250 g of carbs a day should not be 80-125 grams below your carb ranges. head back to your start page, reenter and save your goals to see if that changes your ranges. my cal ranges are 1460-1810 and my carbs ranges are 164-294 for example. so if you're in the 1200-1550 range that should be roughly in the 100-160 g carbs range, which is where you are.

To answer your questions, I don't have snacks at home, I keep them at work and out of site. I actually just had the chips as a morning snack and the popcorn as my afternoon snack. I do not have an after dinner snack as usually dinner is around 6:30-7:00. I am in a rush in the mornings so my breakfasts are small (especially today) but I usually try to make my breakfasts around 300-350 calories at most. I admit I did hit a sugar craving this week and gave in when I shouldn't of but that craving wouldn't go away. I am going to go grocery shopping over the weekend and get some fruits and veggies to snack on, I think I will feel less tired if I get more of those in my diet than what I have available at the moment.

You say that you eat fruit and veggies, but there are none listed in your tracker. Some people don't log things like raw vegetables because they're low in calories, but then you don't have a record of important nutrients other than calories.

If you're eating vegetables and fruits that aren't listed in your tracker, start listing them if you want to see your carb totals. If you're not eating any more vegetables than the ones listed in your tracker, then eat more. Consider taking a little container of baby carrots, sliced sweet peppers, and hummus or bean dip for your afternoon snack instead of chips, for example.

Also, remember that the carb range they give you is a *range.* You don't have to hit the top number. If you're reaching the bottom number most of the time, you're fine.

LOVE4KITTIES
Posts:
4,689
9/23/13 1:54 P

Hello and welcome to Spark People. It looks like you are off to an excellent start as you've been tracking your food, you've made some goals and it sounds like you're now ready to start making some changes to what you eat so that you end up falling within the Spark People recommended ranges for protein, fat, carbs, etc. So, congrats on a job well done so far!

I took a look at your nutrition tracker and I noticed a couple of things.

The first thing that I noticed was that you seem to have small breakfasts/lunches and you seem to have a lot of calories allotted to your snacks. Are you eating these snacks mostly at night, after dinner (maybe in front of the TV...which is something that a lot of people do, and also what I used to do, so don't feel bad if this is you)? Or, maybe you're so hungry when you get home from work that you eat snacks before dinner? This could be one of your problems with fatigue during the afternoon--not enough calories for breakfast and lunch and most of your calories eaten around dinnertime. I know that it's tempting to save calories for dinner and after dinner snacks, but, if this describes you, this is probably something that you'll want to change in order to feel better and get rid of that afternoon sleepiness. Try spacing your calorie intake evenly throughout the day. The question of how, exactly, to do this will depend on what works best for you. I know that eating snacks and mini meals is something that seems to work for a lot of people (e.g. small breakfast, snack, small lunch, snack, small dinner, snack). But, it can also make you feel like you're focusing on food all day (constantly eating) and it can also leave you feeling like you're never satisfied (never feel full, always waiting for the next snack or meal). So, you may be someone who would do better with breakfast, lunch and dinner and no snacks. This really depends on what works best for you.

The second thing that I noticed was that your snacks are foods that have a lot of simple, refined, carbs. Simple carbs come from things like candy and chips. These simple carbs tend to not stay with you the way that complex carbs would, meaning that you might find yourself hungry (and some people find themselves sleepy) not too long after eating them. Simple carbs also don't have many nutrients associated with them and so you will probably find that your diet is lacking in some of the vitamins/minerals your body needs. You really have to work at getting your body all the nutrients it needs when you're restricting calories to lose weight. Think of it this way--you only have so many calories to spend and so you need to spend the large majority of them on nutrient dense foods (the foods with more vitamins/minerals in them) because you won't be getting what your body needs if you spend too many calories on foods that are low in nutrients. So, I'd slowly work on phasing out the candy and chips and replacing these things with more healthy alternatives. In other words, I'd work on slowly getting more fruits, veggies (non starchy veggies and starchy veggies such as sweet potatoes and potatoes) and whole grains to get carbs instead of getting your carbs from things like candy and chips. Beans are also an excellent source of complex carbs. Pretty soon, you really won't miss the simple carbs.

I'm not really sure you need more carbs overall because it looks like you may be falling within your Spark People recommended range. I think that you may need to work on spacing them more evenly throughout the day, though, and of course, work on reducing replacing the simple carbs with complex carbs.

Sleepiness can be caused by too many carbs.....insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and diabetes as well as many other causes....such as skipping meals...eating sugar too....as sugar can cause fatigue...so does dehydration....If you don't drink enough water it forces your cells to borrow water from your blood steam...and then you may suffer from cumulative dehydration and fatigue.

Carbs get digested quickly and are converted into blood glucose rather quickly. Just after you have a carb rich meal, there is a shoot in the sugar level in the blood, and your pancreas starts producing insulin in large amounts to take care of the excess sugar in the blood....the source of carbs doesn't matter, whether it is sugar, fruit, bread, or vegetable

Carbs need to come from the high fiber foods..

high fiber veggies, Rye Bread which digests slowly and doesn't create a glucose crash which make a person feel tired....brown rice or wild rice....if you're getting the correct types of carbohydrates and the right portions you won't feel so tired...you may be an undiagnosed diabetic...when is the last time you had an A1C test?

Get rid of the midday crashes...have an apple, strawberries, blueberries and a small snack every 2-3 hours Try adding lima beans, kidney beans, broccoli, spinach and nuts, including almonds, cashews and hazel nuts and brazil nuts to your diet. Eat an orange...get that vitamin C. Eat an apple for energy....they fight fatigue.

How interesting, most people seem to have the opposite problem. Usually not enough protein and too many carbs (of the added sugar/processed variety).

It's hard to make specific suggestions without having access to your nutrition tracker (if you want to make it public go to your Sparkpage, click "edit spark page" and tick the appropriate box in the white box that appears at the top of the screen).

Do you include any beans (legumes) or lentils in your diet? You could always add even more veg and fruit. Starchy vegs (like sweet potato) tend to have a higher carb content. Do you eat dairy? Whole grain oats? Quinoa? Brown or wild rice?

I was hoping to get some guidance on how to add more carbs to my diet and fight off those mid-day sleepies. Anytime I look at my daily intake, I am on point for my fat, protein, and calories but I am never on target for my carbs. I always seem to be way low, like 80-125 grams lower than my recommended daily intake. I do eat fruits, veggies and grains but it never seems like enough.

Secondly, I am noticing that I am starting to get sleepy in the middle of the afternoon. Granted I have gone from having a drink every night for the past year to pratically cold turkey. I learned from my last job that in order to destress you drink. SO I left that job and started over and I no longer have the desire to drink. I do workout 5 days a week for 30-60 minutes (depending on the activity).

any suggestions on how to get the carbs in and how to get rid of the mid day sleepy would be great.

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